EL MONTE, CA—The Magellan Group has broken ground on Magellan Gateway, a 501,270-square-foot industrial facility in El Monte, CA. The project will cost $55 million and is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year. The project is the first major industrial project to break ground since 2008.

“The dense population, relative scarcity of comparable sites and low industrial vacancy rates provided a margin of safety as well as upside opportunities,” Kevin Staley, a principal and co-founder at the Magellan Group, tells GlobeSt.com about the company's attraction to the market. “Currently, the City of El Monte has approximately $850 million of investments either in process or planned. This site was one of the largest remaining infill parcels left in the region.”

The Magellan Group purchased the 26.8-acre land site last year, and has hired HPA Architects to design the project. Once complete, the property will have 14 units ranging in size from 10,905 to 164,284 square feet. It will feature 6-foot to 30-foot clear heights, dock-high and grade-level loading, concrete driveways and truck courts, T5 warehouse lighting, flexible column spacing, finished ground floor office spaces and ample mezzanine space. The project is being built to LEED Sustainable Facility standards.

The individual units will be offered both for lease and for sale. Although this is the first development to break ground since the recession, demand is high and the Magellan Group has already received interest in the project. “Currently, we are in advanced negotiations with one company for the purchase of one of the larger buildings and have received offers and other expressions of interest for substantial ‎portions of the other space; all interests thus far have been to purchase the buildings,” Staley says. “This area has had a tremendous amount of Asian investments in the recent years, and we are making sure to target all potential users in the area include those from overseas.”

It isn't surprising that the developer is already receiving interest. Demand for infill industrial properties is high, and according to a recent interview with Rexford Industrial, a public REIT focused on investing in Southern California infill product, the Southern California market has the best fundamentals in the nation.